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Directed by Freddie Francis
Apart from their prolific horror output, the Hammer studios also produced a number of thrillers, many of those dealing with psychopaths and mental illness. It's no coincidence that some of the more prominent ones were released directly after Psycho. Paranoiac was one of those.
The premise is simple enough and I won't spoil it. However, it's not arrogant presumption on my part that everyone can figure out the mystery right from the start. So if the plan is to sit down for a shocker or be "sixth sensed" at the end, you can do better than to watch this black-and-white thriller. But I can single out one element that makes watching Paranoiac worth it: Oliver Reed. His calm demeanour, contrasted by a few maniacal outbursts, is the primary reason I go back to this film time and again.
But were it not for Oliver Reed, Paranoiac would just be another unremarkable entry in a series of copycat thrillers.
While Harry Callahan has been embraced by the right as their champion, the character as such is actually quite the idealist that works in the system which he despises but only as there is no better option at this time. Clint has made this part so much his that I never expect another actor to play the part and if he is I really am not interested. His Harry Callahan is a special kind of guy that is played in such an laid back way as only Clint Eastwood can do, he is never funny and yet he is. He enjoys his live but is annoyed about it at the same time. And most importantly Harry is very intelligent, based upon his accomplishments he should be a chief of police but isn't as he does not like to play power games. Harry Callahan stands for good.
The dead Pool is a worthy last Dirty Harry movie that could have used some more meat on its bones but as a story works quite well in the Clint Eastwood oeuvre. In a sense it feels closer to "Play misty to me" than Dirty Harry.
An ALMOST perfect* film with some virtually orgasmic action sequences.
*suffers from some cheesy writing typical of the 90s
("we're not going to make it...are we"
It's in your nature to destroy yourselves
Yeah...major drag huh")
Eddie Furlong reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog at times.
This is a great little thriller made at the ass-end of the 60s (released in February 1970) and stars Roger Moore as city gent and loving husband/dad Harold Pelham, who has a near fatal car crash. While on the operating table he dies briefly before being resuscitated. Later he returns to work and his social life, but something seems amiss, people keep telling him they've seen him in places and doing things he has no recollection of. Is there a doppleganger…or is he losing his mind?
One of the few films that allows Sir Roger to stretch his acting chops and supposedly the one that convinced the Bond producers that he had the 'big screen' charisma needed to play Bond.
I had only seen this film once before during the early 70s at our local ad-hoc cinema in Salcombe during the summer hols. But it stayed with me and I really wanted to revisit it again. To me it still stands up as an effective thriller with a satisfying ending and would recommend checking it out if you've never seen it. This Network release is very good, nice picture and the sound (though only mono) is as good as could be without a new 5.1 mix being done. Nice to see old Moore being serious on screen.
@BAIN123, but those words are frighteningly prophetic, aren't they? ;-)
I love T2. Arnold gives his best performance, the score is great, the story even greater and the action just perfect. I love the colours in this movie. Much like everything looks greenish in The Matrix, I have a sense that everything looks blueish here. Plus, the T-1000 is one of the most terrifying "evil stalkers" ever. And the best part of all is that T2 holds up. I consider it Cameron's best (along with Aliens). Ava-what? Seriously, THIS is the Cameron film we should worship.
I agree 100%. T2 is cinematic gold and it's amazing how well it stands up today, 24 yrs later. I was completely speechless when I first saw it all those years ago....probably one of the top 10 cinematic experiences I have had.
Marie Antoinette
Sofia Coppola's movie was actually not what I expected. For some reason I thought it would be just pretty fluff, but actually it was better than that, and more interesting than I expected. Hardy was in it for about 2 minutes, thankfully the rest of the movie wasn't bad, either.
Flood
A major flood hitting London... I don't much care for catastrophe movies in general, and this was a typically cliched thing. I've always liked Robert Carlyle, so nice to see him, though. Hardy was in this maybe even 5 minutes, and gave the best acting performance in the whole movie. I might be biased as well, but I really think he did. The movie was utterly forgettable, as expected.
Standing Still
When this started I thought, oh no, not another bloody stupid, typical so-called romantic comedy (which are hardly ever funny and the "romance" is usually really meh). However, it wasn't as bad as I feared, and not totally typical, either. Not actually good, but watchable. Not torturous to sit through. And Adams was in this quite a lot at least.
Following
Finally saw this. About bloody time. An interesting black and white feature debut from Nolan on a tiny, tiny budget. I definitely liked it and already want to re-watch.
Blood Diamond
I like some other Edward Zwick movies a lot (such as Defiance and The Last Samurai), and I like Leo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly. Why I hadn't seen this movie before though, I don't know. Not light entertainment for sure, but very intriguing throughout. It's such a pity that movies like this don't normally make money. (This didn't, either.)
And btw, I'm so glad I don't own any diamond jewellery...
But there has been talks about making another movie, more true to the comic book source material. I am all for it.
By the time the end credits rolled, a significant part of my golden years had disappeared.
The previews were quite deceiving. Not the comedy I expected. Great cast. I especially love Naomi Watts.
Oh god I wish I'd been old enough to see it in the cinema in 1991. First saw it when I recorded it on BBC1 in summer 1997. Wore out the recording long before I brought the DVD (and later the Blu-Ray).
I'm glad you saw Following. It's a good film, isn't it. I actually think it has a slightly better setup than Memento.
I'm glad, too. :P It is indeed good. Fascinating stuff. I did think about Memento, too, structure-wise. I enjoy fitting pieces of puzzle together in my head while watching, with all the oh-what's this... hey, wait a minute... oh that piece goes in there... so this happened before that, and this, oh... I see... :) The guy needs a small budget again for... something. :))
What the heck, I might just admit it, I want Nolan for Bond. :D
Jupiter Ascending is one hell of a CGI party and every pixel is invited. And if this were a video game, I'm sure we'd all be in awe. But it's a movie and our demands for a good story are high. Very high. Of course the problem with the Wachowski's is that so far they've made only two films with a great story: Bound and The Matrix. Everything else has been eye candy, style over substance.
Luckily, I'm somehow able to swallow it all down like, well, candy and enjoy the taste of it all. I'm one of the few people who will defend the Matrix sequels and Speed Racer to the end. Cloud Atlas is where I got a little confused: I still haven't made up my mind about that film yet but I'm not sure I like it. As for Jupiter Ascending, well...
... let's just say I disagree that this is The Matrix meets Star Wars. This is Dune meets Howard The Duck. The Wachowski's try to build too much myth in such a short amount of time, I'm lost after the second or third exposition dialogue, and there are many more to come. There are ways to avoid that. Don't overstuff your film with information, keep some of the mystery and perhaps audiences will grant you permission to produce sequels in which the myth can be further explored. That's what worked so well in The Matrix. I walked out of that movie asking several questions which made me very enthusiastic about the sequels. But in Jupiter Ascending I don't want to know more. I couldn't handle more! I'm confused as it is. Plus, Lana and Andy, remember you need to show us things, not tell them!
So we have an exciting score and great visuals, but other than that we're trapped in a very expensive re-telling of so many space fantasy stories. The love story? Painfully predictive, soap opera level. The acting? Well, for the first time I did not like Mila Kunis. Seriously, I'm a huge That 70s Show fan but this isn't suitable for the kind of actress Mila is.
But again, it looks very good and that counts for something. So I was entertained but also underwhelmed. This is no Star Wars, people. If anything, it demonstrates that the Star Wars prequels weren't that bad after all. I give it a mild recommend.
Wachowski ranking:
1) The Matrix
2) Bound
3) The Matrix Reloaded
4) The Matrix Revolutions
5) Speed Racer
6) Jupiter Ascending
7) Cloud Atlas
Or: how DD was bored out of his skull!
Wannabe horror filmmakers, here's a few words of advice from someone who's actually watched horror films:
- scary music isn't enough; scary music tells me to be scared but unless I see something, it won't happen
- if you shoot the film so dark I'm perpetually staring at a black screen, I'm going to be frustrated, not scared
- enough with the "it's actually a tragedy" BS already. We went through the J-horror phase in which evil spirits went through tear jerking dramas during their normal lives, explaining the anger with which they now attack us. Sometimes, evil is just evil. Freddy? Michael?
- lunatics aren't scary any more. It's not because an old-timer starts talking gibberish in the dark that I'm going to be spooked.
- doors slamming shut, unexpected power failures, lights mysteriously blown out... sorry, but you're going to need a lot more before those things get on our nerves in this day and age.
- after an hour of nothing, one or two jump-up scares aren't enough, in fact, at that point they're an insult, like starving someone to death and then presenting a royal meal.
I'm sick and tired of these pretentious, self-indulgent wannabe arthouse horror flicks! Haven't they learned anything from Hide And Seek, Skeleton Key and that sort of stuff that was barely entertaining ten years ago? And to think that the first Woman In Black was actually a very good movie! It really was scary, it delivered the goods and didn't need an hour of hey! something's about to hap- oh, it's nothing... AGAIN! before they finally did something.
It's unbelievable that someone like James Wan for example can time and again make these effective horror flicks with more or less the same plots and the same tricks, while others struggle so hard. This second Woman In Black film is just another example of a wasted opportunity. The first one gave me high hopes three years ago. Hammer was back! Then Hammer made The Quiet Ones, which was boring too. And now this extremely disappointing Woman In Black Sequel. *Sigh*.
Sorry folks, an angry ghost movie serves but one purpose: to frighten us. If you want to tell us a powerful human drama, then don't sell it as the scariest thing we'll ever see. Also, I've had it with the argument that what you don't see is often scarier than what you do see and such. That holds up for only a minor few exceptionally well crafted films like Rosemary's Baby and Don't Look Now. But Woman In Black 2, you are no Rosemary's Baby! What makes something like The Grudge or Sinister terrifying is what we do see!
Bottom line: screw this film! I was bored. Had I known this is what I was going to watch, I would have watched the original The Haunting again. At least that film is well made.
I have not seen Raiders of the Lost Ark for a few years, so I slipped it into the DVD player recently. The last twenty minutes or so really excited me. I have to give big props to the Lowry team on the Bond DVD's - compared to RotLA, FYEO was so clear and pristine.
So, I started with a spy/action film for South Korea: Commitment (2013). It is about the teenage son of a dead North Korean spy, who gets the mission to go deep undercover in South Korea to carry on his father's work. The young spy is played by Choi Seung-hyun, better known in his country as T.O.P., a rapper from the popular boy-band 'Big Bang'.
Now, you may think this means 'very bad acting' and 'teenage melodrama'? Not at all! The main actor (who was 25 years old at the time, but looks quite young for his age so he is credible as a teenager) is actually a remarkable actor, and displays a lot talent by his facial expressions. Also, his fighting techniques are impressive, his fist fights seems like a ballet (like all through asian action actors), and you can feel every punch and kick he throws. He also tortures a man, shoots several people, and kills by strangulation and repeated stabbing.
The first half of the movie alternates between the main character's life in high school, and his missions/kills at night. At half way, the movie flips on its head and it becomes a great intense spy/action flick.
In conclusion, if you want to watch an action movie with a young spy who can clearly defend himself, this is a good choice. Highly entertaining for 2 hours, with some fantastic action sequences.
Thanks, @DaltonCraig007! Another one for my to do list. ;-)
I've had this box-set The Hammer Collection for a few years now, and the only films I've not seen so far are this one and The Vengeance of She, which I'm pretty sure I've seen before. Must say the DVD is a very good transfer, though I can't imagine the film has been shown much so very minimal damage.
Can't say as I recommend this one, because I don't!